You possessive pronouns (possessive pronouns) refer to the interlocutors of a speech, indicating a relationship of possession, that is, they indicate that something belongs to someone.
Are they: my, mia, hands, more, tuyo, tuya, tuyos, you, suyo, suya, suyos, suyas, nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras, vuestro, vuestra, vuestros and vestras.
Types of Possessives in Spanish
Possessives in Spanish are subdivided into two types: unstressed and tonics.
Possessive Tonics
You possessive tonics (tonic possessives) are used after a noun and therefore agree in number and degree with it.
Thus, what defines whether the possessive will be masculine/feminine and singular/plural is the noun that follows it.
Are they:
| Possessive Tonics | Translation |
|---|---|
| hand; mia | My; mine |
| hands; more | My; my |
| Tuyo; tuya | Your; your |
| Tuyos; you | Your; your |
| suyo; suya | Yours, his; yours, hers |
| suyos; suyas | Hers, theirs; yours, theirs |
| Nuestro; nuestra | Our; Wow |
| nuestros; nuestras | Ours; our |
| Vuestro; vuestra1 | Your; yours |
| Vuestros; vestras1 | Your; yours |
| suyo; suya2 | Yours, his; yours, hers |
| suyos; suyas2 | Hers, theirs; yours, theirs |
1 forms used in Spain
2 forms used in Latin America
Examples:
- These books are mys. (These books are mine.)
- The victory will be yours. (The victory will be yours.)
- These notebooks are de ellos. Los nuestros in the sé where it is. (These notebooks are theirs. Ours do not know where they are.)
- The keys you found. (The keys I found are yours.)
- These carpets are more. Las suyas are on the table. (These folders are mine. Yours are on the table.)
Unsung Possessives
You unstressed possessives (unatonic possessives) are used before a noun.
Are they:
| Unsung Possessives | Translation |
|---|---|
| Mi | My; mine |
| mis | My; my |
| You | Your; your |
| you | Your; your |
| Su | Yours, his; yours, hers |
| sus | Hers, theirs; yours, theirs |
| Nuestro; nuestra | Our; Wow |
| nuestros; nuestras | Ours; our |
| Vuestro; vuestra1 | Your; yours |
| Vuestros; vestras1 | Your; yours |
| Su2 | Yours, his; yours, hers |
| sus2 | Hers, theirs; yours, theirs |
1 forms used in Spain
2 forms used in Latin America
Examples:
- My friend has invited me to her fiesta de cumpleaños. (My friend invited me to her birthday party.)
- ¿Where are your notebooks? (Where are your notebooks?)
- her house is muy bella. (Your house is very beautiful.)
- Nuestra prueba de español es Jueves. (Our Spanish test is on Thursday.)
- Vuestros consejos are very important to me. (Your advice is very important to me.)
Some of these possessives are apocalyptic forms; who suffered apocalypse. Thus, they only agree in number (singular/plural) with the noun and are not inflected with regard to gender (male/female).
The apocope is the elimination of a phoneme or a syllable, that is, the loss of one or more letters at the end of a word.
The apocoped possessives are: mi, mis, you, you, su and sus.
There is no short form for nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras, vuestro, vuestra, vuestros and vestras.
Difference between possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives
In Spanish, possessives can act as a pronoun or adjective.
While the possessive pronoun replaces the noun of the sentence, the possessive adjective accompanies and describes/characterizes such noun.
Examples:
- ¿Where is the dictionary tuyo? - possessive adjective
- This dictionary is my. ¿where is she tuyo? - possessive pronoun
Note that in the first sentence, the possessive tuyo is featuring the dictionary. This is not just any dictionary, but the dictionary of the recipient of the message.
In the second example, tuyo replace the word dictionary, preventing it from being repeated in the sentence. If this replacement had not been applied, the sentence would look like this: This dictionary is my. ¿where are you dictionary?
Possessives video in Spanish
Check out a video lesson below with a very practical summary about the use of possessives in Spanish.
Possessive exercises in Spanish
1. (UFS/2009)
hello to the show
Alejandro Ciriza
Fascinating start of the Olympic Games of Pekin, in the light, the color and the millenary Chinese culture gave way to a memorable inaugural ceremony.
The print by Jao Ming, a gigantic 2 meters and 26 centimeters in height, bearing the flag of China, supposes a faithful reflection of the magnitude of the eastern country. A superpower of 1,300,000,000 inhabitants who host a gala of all its strength and technological arsenal in the ceremony inaugural of the Olympic Games of Pekin, in which a beautiful show of light and color opened the Chinese country to the world for some hours.
The millenary Chinese culture was the leader of the entire gala, which started with a fireworks exhibition. Artificial fires, projected from the enclosure of the national stadium, tie up the city of the Chinese capital with the colors that compose the rings of the Olympic logo. Next, the rojo was adapted from the interior of El Nido de Pájaro. A large army of drums, accompanied by a thunderous chorus of yours, flooded all the corners of the stadium.
The bullying originated by the timbales and the fires originated in a sepulchral silence, only interrupted by the melancholic Chinese music. The extras will represent the evolution of the Gran Muralla and the continuation, a gigantic parchment luminous covered the ceiling of the enclosure, from where a decade of dancers brings an allegory of the origin of the paper. The terracotta warriors, as part of the Chinese opera, were the next protagonists. His acting and his movements created a mystical atmosphere that after a moment moved us to the Silk Road, staged with a great combination of dance, light and sounds.
The ceremony gathered more intensity and lived one of its most intense moments when the actors composed a reproduction of the Chinese national stadium, with capacity for 91,000 spectators. The ball of the extras, adorned with blue rays, projected a trustworthy reproduction of El Nido, where all the athletic contests and some football parties will be disputed.
(Adapted from http://forum.g-sat.net)
Mark as TRUE the alternatives in which possessives are correctly used, and as FALSE those that do not.
a) In China all is great. Other Olympic Games opening ceremonies also use artificial fires, but never like them.
b) Terracotta warriors, with their ceremonial rhythm, create a mystical atmosphere in the stadium.
c) An army accompanied by its drums flooded all corners of the stadium.
d) After the celebration of Olympic Games, chinos will surely feel proud of their country.
e) The Juegos de Pekin, with all its brightness, will mark the history of the Olympics.
the truth. the unstressed possessive suyos performs the function of pronoun. It replaces the term artificial fires, thus avoiding a repetition of the word in the sentence.
b) FALSE. Before nouns, we must use unstressed possessives. Therefore, the phrase should have been formulated with the possessive su (your pace), and not with suyo.
c) FALSE. Before nouns, we must use unstressed possessives. Therefore, the phrase should have been formulated with the possessive sus (your drums), and not with suyos.
d) TRUE. In front of a noun (parents), we must use an unstressed possessive.
e) FALSE. Before nouns, we must use unstressed possessives. Therefore, the phrase should have been formulated with the possessive su (your glow), and not with suyo.
2. (ESCS-DF/2006)
DON JUAN
Behind the Words – Charlie López
The expression “Don Juan”, usually applied to the incorrigible seducer, is based on one of the myths of Spanish literature represented in Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla. The work reflects the real history of a famous Sevillian aristocrat, Don Juan de Mañara, whose andanzas fueron also recreated by Molière, Lord Byron and Mozart, the latter through his famous opera Don Giovanni, in which he adjudicates the little credible number of 2,594 lovers.
In the work of Tirso de Molina, her last conquest is Doña Ana, daughter of the commander of Seville, who died in a duel with Don Juan to be sorprender them in fragranti.
The Franciscan monks, willing to end with the atropellos of the infamous libertine, supposedly do so in the monastery, awarding their death to the statue of the commander.
Another version states that Don Juan, eager to celebrate his triumph over the commander, invites his statue to participate in the fiesta, where the ghost of the “guest of piedra” the guide to the confines of the hell.
“adjudicating su muerte”; if we put the posesive "su" after the noun "death", the correct form of this segment will be:
a) adjudicating his death
b) adjudicating la muerte suyo
c) adjudicating your death
d) adjudicating el muerte suya
e) adjudicating la muerte suya
Correct alternative: e) adjudicating la muerte suya
a) WRONG. The word death is a feminine noun, so it is not accompanied by the article. he, but by the article there. Also, the word your does not exist in Spanish.
b) WRONG. The word death it is a feminine noun, so the possessive agreement must be in gender and number. So the correct way would be suya and not suyo.
c) WRONG. The word your does not exist in Spanish.
d) WRONG. The word death is a feminine noun, so it is not accompanied by the article. he, but by the article there.
e) CORRECT. The word death is a feminine noun, so it is accompanied by the article there. After a noun, we cannot use an unstressed possessive. For this reason, su pass to suya, agreeing in gender and number with the word death.
3. (UFPB/2000)
More than 300,000 children are in conflict around the world. Your site is in the school, not in the war. Based on this statement, UNESCO has created the Emergency Educational Assistance Unit. In the phase of national reconstruction, the unit helps to create adequate infrastructure and educational and training programs.
(FUENTES, UNESCO, nº 108, enero, 1999).
According to the text, the posesivo Su refers to
a) world
b) children
c) school
d) conflicts
d) war
Correct alternative: b) children
a) WRONG. The term world it is only used to locate where conflicts occur, not to create a relationship of ownership between sentence elements.
b) CORRECT. In the excerpt "Your site is in the school, not in the war.", the possessive su refers to the word children, which was mentioned earlier in the sentence, indicating that the children (the kids) have a place. So the meaning of the phrase is: children's place is in school, not in war.
c) WRONG. The term isscuela it is used to locate where the children's place is, and not to create a relationship of ownership between elements of the sentence.
d) WRONG. To refer to the word conflicts, the possessive su should agree with her in gender and number. Furthermore, no relationship of ownership is established between the word and another element of the sentence.
e) WRONG. The term war is used to make it clear that this is not the place for children, and not to create a relationship of ownership between elements of the sentence.
To learn more about the grammar of the Spanish language, be sure to consult the texts below:
- Spanish demonstrative pronouns
- Personal Pronouns in Spanish
- adjectives in spanish
